Democracy and disgust

The Bush administration appears to me to have thrown its stated policy for dealing with Iran in favor of beseeching the mullahs for “a decent interval” in which to withdraw American troops. I don’t think that’s the correct approach for dealing with a country that has been at war with us for 28 years and that is engaged in killing American soldiers in Iraq. Is a story like the Boston Globe’s account of yesterday’s meeting between Ryan Crocker and his Iranian counterpart to be taken at face value? The Globe reports that Crocker asked that Iran stop supplying arms to Iraqi militia groups. I trust that Crocker remembered to say “please.”
The Globe account barely mentions Iran’s nuclear weapons program, invoking Bush administration policy as a potential deterrent to Iran lending its helping hand to the United States in Iraq. Perhaps yesteday’s meeting is to be followed by one in which we ask the mullahs politely to give up their beloved nuclear program. Iranian filmmaker Ardeshir Arian sees the thread between yesterday’s meeting and the pursuit by the mullahs of their right to pull the trigger on Armageddon. I hope we’re not counting on President Bush’s friends in the CIA to do a job on the mullahs’ nuclear program.
Eli Lake addresses the administration’s approach to the mullahs’ nuclear progam in his New York Sun story on yesterday’s meeting:

Yesterday’s talks between America and Iran mark the first long-form discussions on security and Iraq between two countries that are inching closer to a war footing. In the last week, American diplomats began making the case at the United Nations for a new Security Council resolution against Iran’s nuclear program in light of a damning report from the International Atomic Energy Agency.

I would love to know what the Bush administration has in mind for the mullahs’ nuclear program. My guess is runs more along the lines of a whimper than a bang.
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